XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 08/12/13

Monday, 12 August 2013

When It Comes To Internet Porn, The US Is Firmly Ahead Of Everyone -

While there are a fair-share of descriptive statistics that show the USA is no longer the "Number 1" that so many believe it to be; Pando Daily put together the following infographic that reveals the Top Ten nations and Top Twenty states that serve up the most illicit content... and the winner is U-S-A! 66% of the porn hosted in the US comes from California and interestingly only 0.62% of all porn sites use the ".xxx" domain name. Of course, hard numbers are tough to come by, but as ExtremeTech illustrates, Xvideos - the largest porn site on the web - gets a stunning 4.4 billion page-views per month - 3x the size of CNN or ESPN. Ironically, the biggest difference is 'duration' - typical news sites are visited for 3 to 6 minutes; while the average time spent on a porn site is between 15 and 20 minutes... Overall, porn websites are estimated to receive a whopping 30% of total internet traffic around the world.

Read more -

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-12/when-it-comes-internet-porn-us-firmly-ahead-everyone

DC Speeding Ticket Camera Company Is Doctoring Evidence Photos -

Nothing feels worse than getting a speeding ticket in the mail. What. The. Truck. As if they weren't bad enough as-is, a report from the Washington DC metropolitan area suggests that the cameras used to catch you might not be playing by the rules. In fact, the camera contractors might be fudging the evidence to make sure you can't challenge the tickets.

Driving politics website (yep!) The Newspaper reports that DC camera contractor American Traffic Solutions has started cropping photos and repositioning cameras to make the citations issued as a result of photo evidence harder to challenge in court. A court recently ruled that if any additional vehicles are visible in a gotcha photo, it can be questioned.

Cropping photos and moving cameras doesn't totally eliminate multiple cars in one frame, but it does cut down on them dramatically. What's more, the camera repositioning makes it impossible to see the lines drawn on the side of the road, which are designed to act as a secondary check against the radar.

Read more -

http://gizmodo.com/a-speeding-ticket-camera-company-is-doctoring-evidence-1056921914

REPORT: Dalai Lama's website attacking visitors... -

A prominent computer security firm has warned that the Dalai Lama's Chinese-language website has been compromised with malicious software that is infecting computers of visitors with software that could be used for spying on its visitors.

Kaspersky Lab researcher Kurt Baumgartner told Reuters that he is advising web surfers to stay away from the Chinese-language site of the Central Tibetan Administration's site until the organization fixes the bug.

He said he believes the group behind the campaign was also behind previous breaches on the site that have gone unreported as well as attacks on websites belonging to groups that focus on human rights in Asia.

Officials with the Office of Tibet in New York could not be reached for comment. That office houses the Dalai Lama's official representative to the United States.

Baumgartner said that the Chinese-language site of the Central Tibetan Administration, which is the official organ of the Dalai Lama's government in exile, has been under constant attack from one group of hackers since 2011, though breaches have been quietly identified and repaired before garnering public attention.

"They have been trying repeatedly to find vulnerabilities in the site," he said.

He said that it is safe to visit the group's English and Tibetan sites.

He said he believes the same group of attackers has repeatedly infected the site with malicious software that automatically drops viruses on computers running Microsoft Corp's Windows and Apple Inc's Mac operating systems. They infect machines by exploiting security bugs in Oracle Corp's Java software.

That gives them "back doors" into those computers. "This is the initial foothold. From there they can download arbitrary files and execute them on the system," Baumgartner said.

An Oracle spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Read more -

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/12/us-tibet-cyberattack-idUSBRE97B0QU20130812

SWAT Team Raid Sustainable Organic Co-Op For Drugs, Find None, Force Them To Mow Their Lawn -

According to a press release from a small sustainable organic co-op called 'The Garden of Eden' out of Arlington, Texas, they were surveilled by unmanned police drones and police helicopters in the days prior to being raided by a SWAT team for supposedly growing marijuana. A group of over a dozen police and a heavily armed SWAT team held those present on site at gunpoint and handcuffed them while they searched their property. No marijuana was found, but the cops forced them to bring their property "up to code," by among other things, forcing them to "mow their grass" and uproot their blackberries while they stood watch.

At around seven thirty last Friday morning, inhabitants of The Garden of Eden, a small Intentional Community based on Sustainability, were awakened by a SWAT raid conducted by the City of Arlington for suspicion of being a full fledged marijuana growth and trafficking operation. Ultimately only a single arrest was made based on unrelated outstanding traffic violations, a handful of citations were given for city code violations, and zero drug related violations were found.

The entire operation lasted about 10 hours and involved many dozens of city officials, SWAT team, police officers and code compliance employees, and numerous official vehicles including dozens of police cars and several specialized vehicular equipment that was involved in the “abatement” operation. Witnesses say that there were helicopters and unmanned flying drones circling the property in the days prior to the raid that are presumed to have been a part of the intelligence gathering. The combined expenses for the raid itself and the collection of information leading up to the fruitless raid are estimated in the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

All 8 adults present in the house were initially handcuffed at the gunpoint of heavily armed SWAT officers, including the mother of a 22 month old and a two week old baby who was separated from her children during the raid. The police enforced activity on the day of the raid included mowing the grass, the forcible destruction of both wild and cultivated plants like blackberries, lamb’s quarters and okra, and the removal of other varied materials from around the premises such as pallets, tires and cardboard that the Community members say they had collected for use in sustainability projects. No marijuana or other drugs were found on site and the inhabitants of the premises were all unarmed.

After several hours and many requests from the community members, the City Police Officers finally produced two warrants. The first was a Search Warrant for a suspected marijuana growth and distribution operation purportedly being concealed on the premises. There was also an Inspection & Abatement Warrant for code compliance violations such as tall grass and storage in the yard, an issue that the City of Arlington and The Garden of Eden have been disputing since February of this year. The marijuana warrant was issued based on an unsubstantiated claim by an Arlington City Police Officer of possession of marijuana by one of the community members for which there is no police record. Garden of Eden community members also say they have a series of documents showing that their dispute with the City of Arlington over the code compliance violations had already been addressed and settled.

Landowner Shellie Smith states that she has been requesting a peaceful and honorable resolution since the onset of the dispute in February, requesting the aid of the City Manager Trey Yelverton, Sheriff Dee Anderson and Mayor Robert Cluck, but has received no response in the matter. Ms. Smith says “the City codes are in violation of our natural and Constitutional rights to live freely while causing damage to no one, and since there is no damaged party, there has been no crime committed on our part. Rather, the City of Arlington has trespassed and committed robbery against us, amongst other crimes, and will be held accountable in a court of law in due time. We have been targeted by the system because we are showing people how to live without it. We are growing more than just tomatoes here, we are growing the consciousness that will allow people to live freely and sustainably, and the system doesn’t want that to be known.”

Read more -

http://www.blacklistednews.com/SWAT_Team_Raid_Sustainable_Organic_Co-Op_For_Drugs%2C_Find_None%2C_Force_Them_To_Mow_Their_Lawn/28033/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Is your child addicted to screens? - 1 day without gadgets- felt lost and lonely, didn’t know what to do with time -

Let me state the obvious here and suggest that at this precise moment, you are probably staring at a screen of some sort. We all do it anywhere from several to several hundred times a day. Studies have shown that all this technology can become addictive if we let it. And our children are growing up in a world that normalizes that addiction.
Gadgets such as iPhones, Kindles and laptops have barely been in our lives for a decade, but already it seems as though many of us are addicted to them. And if you think you check your phone or iPad frequently, you should know that your teen is probably checking it even more.
A new study has found that the majority of kids spend as much as 75 per cent of their days staring at one screen or another. That means that kids go right from phones to iPads to TVs to computers each day with little break in between. And the only nature they are probably seeing is on the flip side of a screen.

Not surprisingly, when efforts are made to limit all of that time, kids exhibit symptoms of withdrawal and depression just as strong — if not stronger — than those associated with drugs or alcohol.
The International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) recently asked 1,000 students in 10 countries on five continents to quit using technology and media for just one day. Just one. At the end of that 24-hour period, they asked the kids how they felt. Here’s what they learned:
Students in the study repeatedly used the term “addiction” when describing their dependence on media. One student from the USA noted: “I was itching, like a crackhead, because I could not use my phone.”
Many of the students simply could not complete the task, giving in to their gadgets before the 24 hours had passed.
Most students said they felt lost, alone and lonely without connecting to their gadgets.
The majority of students responded that they had no idea what to do with their time if they weren’t checking their gadgets.
Students said they missed the source of connection, security and comfort they received from their gadgets, with one U.S. student noting, “My phone is my only source of comfort.”
Pretty scary, huh? How do you think your child would do for 24 hours without her gadgets? How would you do? It’s worth finding out. And most importantly, if you do convince your child to step away from the screen for a day, you should do the same.

Read more -
http://www.thestar.com/life/2013/08/12/is_your_child_addicted_to_screens.html

U.S. Pays $1.5 Mil to Help Brazilian Women Quit Smoking -

A Brazilian-born researcher who runs minority health programs at a public university in Alabama has convinced the U.S. government to give her $1.5 million to help women quit smoking in her native country.

A noble cause indeed, but likely not on the high list of the American taxpayers funding the project. Nevertheless, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s medical research agency, has given the Brazilian researcher, Isabel Scarinci, a five-year, $1.5 million grant to fund her international tobacco-control project.

The goal is to better understand “women and their tobacco-related issues” in the South American country, especially in Scarinci’s Brazilian hometown of Parana. In the last two years alone, the researcher has received north of $560,000 for the initiative, according to NIH records for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

Here is what Uncle Sam’s generosity is getting us, according to the NIH: “An understanding of women and their tobacco-related issues” as well as the “development of gender-relevant tobacco control efforts.” Wait, there’s more information from the NIH to justify the grant, though it’s unlikely to keep Americans up at night: A “smoking epidemic is rapidly spreading to women in developing countries.”

In Brazil girls are taking up smoking in particularly high numbers, Scarinci tells a university magazine piece celebrating her federal grant. Additionally, it can be hard to convince women in the South American nation of the dangers of smoking and “other risky health behaviors.” The researcher feels a sense of responsibility, saying “I can’t forget where I came from. Twenty years have gone by and their needs haven’t changed. For me, it’s personal.”

At the University of Alabama Scarinci is a preventative medicine expert who specializes in reaching out to “at-risk populations.” As part of her duties she operates several publicly-funded initiatives to promote healthy lifestyles and disease prevention among “Latino immigrants and African Americans in underserved rural communities.” This likely includes illegal aliens.

The Obama administration has made minority health a huge priority and has funded projects accordingly through different federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as well as the NIH, which annually doles out north of $31 billion to hundreds of thousands of researchers at thousands of universities and institutions around the globe.

Earlier this year the NIH hired a Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity as part of a $500 million initiative to boost minority causes in biomedical research and the federal grant process. Under Obama the agency also created a new committee that makes “diversity a core consideration of NIH governance and ensures fairness in the peer review system that erases “unconscious bias related to disparities in research awards.” The plan also implements “implicit bias and diversity awareness training.”

Read more -

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/08/u-s-pays-1-5-mil-to-help-brazilian-women-quit-smoking/

Sacked woman ordered to show her Facebook pages to prove she didn't misuse sick leave -

Air New Zealand has forced a sacked flight attendant to let bosses examine her bank records and Facebook pages in a row over her claiming sick leave

New Zealanders fond of pulling a sicky may need to be more careful about what they post on Facebook while they are off.

Air New Zealand has forced a sacked flight attendant to let bosses examine her bank records and Facebook pages in a row over her claiming sick leave.

Gina Kensington was sacked by the airline earlier this year after the company claimed she misused two days leave she took to care for her sister.

Ms Kensington took her case to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) in a bid to be reinstated - but the airline countered by asking to see copies of her Facebook pages and bank records for the disputed days.

The former employee argued she should not have to disclose the details as there was an expectation of privacy about personal and financial information.

The ERA disagreed and forced her to hand over the details. Both parties are now awaiting a ruling.

The case mirrors that of another New Zealander, Bruce Taiapa, who was sacked after taking sick leave for a week but was pictured on Facebook at a school canoeing carnival.

In that case the ERA ruled the sacking was justified.

Founder of pressure group Tech Liberty, Thomas Beagle , told the National Business Review that he was shocked by the decision in the Kensington case: “Employers should not have the rights to snoop on everything we do,” he said.

“We wouldn't let them search our homes on demand and we shouldn't let them ransack our online lives looking for dirt.”

Read more -

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/sacked-woman-ordered-to-show-her-facebook-pages-to-prove-she-didnt-misuse-sick-leave-8756445.html